Call of Duty publisher "keenly aware" of battle royale popularity

Activision, publisher of Call of Duty, is "keenly aware" of the popularity of the swelling battle royale genre.

According to investment firm Oppenheimer, at a recent meeting with Activision, the publisher's financial officer hinted that it was a company quick to follow lucrative trends - and battle royale is exactly that for the companies behind hits such as Fortnite and PUBG.

"The investment firm says Activision is keenly aware of how other game publishers have recently benefited from releasing titles in the popular battle royale genre," reports the Dow Jones Newswire.

"Management reminded investors that the company is a faster follower."

Last week Activision took the first wraps off Call of Duty Black Ops 4, to be released on October 12.

Whether a battle royale mode could be added to Call of Duty is debatable. Every yearly release has three hefty parts already; single-player campaign, multiplayer (with multiple modes) and zombies. This is then supported post-release with multiple DLC. Call of Duty is a first-person game and the majority of battle royale games work best in third-person. That's not to say it wouldn't work, or the Call of Duty name could be used in a spin-off game. There's plenty to debate and theorise, then.

There's no doubt that the battle royale genre is growing rapidly from humble beginnings. PUBG and Fortnite are arguably the most popular and well known right now, but there are plenty of pretenders yapping at their heels, such as the 400-player game Mavericks, STALKER developer's Fear the Wolves, new Early Access title The Darwin Project and there's even a battle royale mode rumoured for Red Dead Redemption 2.

That major publishers are eyeing the success of battle royale games should be no surprise. And Activision is not the only games company with multi-million dollar budgets at their disposal. Watch the skies.